Our View: Enough of golden parachutes, gag orders

Thursday

Mar 27, 2014 at 8:01 PM

It is galling no end that Illinois State University would pay its now-former president, Timothy Flanagan, some half a million in go-away money after just seven months on the job. A close second on the offensive scale was compounding that insult to taxpayers through a mutually agreed upon gag order that denies them the right to know what has just been done and why with their dollars.

This is so wrong on nearly every level that ... well, let us count the ways.

First, ISU may well have had cause to fire Flanagan after an alleged physical altercation with a university groundskeeper, for which the administrator has since been charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct by the McLean County state’s attorney. The Chicago Tribune reports there were compatibility concerns, as well. As a result Flanagan may be leaving under pressure from the board, but in fact he resigned, which is a voluntary act. So instead of getting $480,000-plus in walk-without-a-word cash, perhaps Flanagan should be reimbursing the university for not fulfilling the terms of his 3-year contract. Contracts are legally binding, two-way streets, are they not?

Second, it’s not exactly a secret that Illinois colleges are struggling with the long-term trend of insufficient funding from the Legislature, while hiking tuition and fees for students in order to compensate. Well, Flanagan’s severance package — which also includes the option to stay in his university-owned home through July — would pay the total tuition and fees of nearly 40 students, which would make their parents happy and be a public investment with an actual shot at producing a return. Note that ISU is asking the Legislature for a reported $74 million in taxpayer assistance for the coming fiscal year, no doubt with the at-least-implied promise that they will be responsible stewards of other people’s money. This situation does not inspire confidence.

Third, we wish this was an isolated incident, but unfortunately it’s not, as we witnessed something like it with the University of Illinois’ former president a couple of years ago, as we’ve seen since with police chiefs and basketball coaches and city managers, etc. This affliction is not relegated to just the public sector, of course, as there are more than a few examples of corporate CEOs receiving wholly unjustified golden parachutes for work poorly performed, too.

In any case it’s infuriating, the precedent it establishes darn near a perverse incentive to screw up and be rewarded for it with a long vacation and a much fatter bank account. It’s one more reason to be leery of long-term contracts, one more reason for an employer to look inside for future leadership first, one more reason to highlight the workplace double standard that holds some accountable but others not so much. How many employees during this last recession were laid off without cause, and with nary a penny or a pat on the back to show for it?

Finally, non-disclosure agreements in high-profile partings of the way may be almost routine anymore due to fears of litigation, but too often they are fundamentally unfair — to taxpayers who have purchased the right to know, to potential future employers of the dismissed who may not do their homework, along with the constituents who can get stuck with the bill if and when history repeats itself. Arguably this mandated silence has just gone too far, an all-too-convenient way to cover for bad decision-making and all-too-indefensible public payoffs/payouts. Enough.